encourage and inspire countless other communities and work-places across the nation of this real threat to our existing smoke and tobacco-free policies.

During the recognition, Philip noted that "Due to Council Member Greenlee's leadership and the much appreciated assistance from his staff, a template offering educational resources (including high impact 'talking points' regarding e-cigarettes) is now available on-line (http://www.phila.gov/health/pdfs/Ecigarettelegislation_QA41014.pdf). This useful material can and should be used to assist local tobacco control advocates in the education of their own City and Town Councils across our country regarding the concern ofe-cigarettes."

"The Arizona Community Foundation and its Affiliates are a statewide philanthropy and partnership of donors, volunteers, staff, nonprofit organizations and the community working together to empower and align philanthropic interests with community needs and build a legacy of giving."

Arizonans Concerned About Smoking, Inc., a 501(c)(3) Corporation, would like to expressour appreciation for partial funding provided by Arizona Community Foundation.With your generous support, we are able to blaze new trails into areas where others fear to tread.We can continue our life-saving health educational efforts thanks to you.

"Partial funding provided by the Arizona Community Foundation"

Member:

Please link your Basha's "Thank You Card" to 25096 to support ACAS, Inc. This must be done in person at the store. ACAS then receives 1% of your shopping dollars!Thanks!

(10/07/2014 Philadelphia) Philadelphia Council Member William K. Greenlee was recognized with a Health Leadership Award in his Officeat Philadelphia City Hall, a National Historic Landmark, by Arizonans Concerned About Smoking (ACAS) Executive Director, Philip J. Carpenter.

Council Member Greenlee was recognized for his continued commitment to the protection and promotion of smoke and tobacco-free workplace policies including e-cigarettes.

Council Member Greenlee's legislation, which treats e-cigarettes like regular cigarettes, was unanimously approvedby the Philadelphia City Council and went into effect 07.01.14.

(11/10/2014)The regulation came after the town received several complaints of people using e-cigarettes inside the Freestone Recreation Center. Councilwoman Jenn Daniels said she had seen people using them in the Town Hall lobby.

The council first discussed an e-cigarette ordinance in June, but held off until council members spoke with supporters, opponents and businesses.E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices and release a vapor that contains nicotine but no tobacco.The Food and Drug Administration has yet to regulate e-cigarettes, and there is little conclusive research regarding the long-term effects of inhaling e-cigarette vapor. Some states and cities have taken regulation into their own hands, including Arizona, which prohibits minors from purchasing them.

In August, Tempe became the first city in Arizona to regulate e-cigarettes with an amendment prohibiting their use in public areas, including private businesses and workplaces. Neighboring Guadalupe passed a similar ordinance around the same time.

Lots of college students hugely underestimate the risk of smoking hookah, a new federal report shows.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new data about 500 undergrad and graduate students at the University of South Florida, on their views on and uses of the increasingly popular waterpipe.

They discovered that more than half of the students (54.4 percent) had smoked hookah — also known as shisha — at some point in their lives, and 16 percent had used hookah recently, in the past 30 days. This squares with a broader trend the CDC has documented: that young people in this country are increasingly using hookah along with other non-cigarette tobacco products, like e-cigarettes.

But the most unsettling part of the study was the utter lack of awareness about harms related to hookah: more than half of the students thought smoking from a waterpipe is less dangerous than cigarette smoking and 13 percent thought hookah wasn’t harmful at all.

SHENZHEN, China — (DEC. 13, 2014) In a grimy workshop, among boiling vats of chemicals, factory workers are busy turning stainless steel rods into slender tube casings, a crucial component of electronic cigarettes. Not long ago, Skorite Electronics was a tiny firm struggling to produce pen parts. Today, it is part of an enormous — and virtually unregulated — supply chain centered here that produces about 90 percent of the world’s e-cigarettesThanks to Stanton.Glantz

Despite our growing knowledge that smoking tobacco is bad for us more than 40 million Americans are cigarette smokers. Smoking cigarettes is known to cause damage to every organ in your body, and smoking-related illnesses are responsible for one out of every five deaths in the U.S. [source: CDC]. But nearly 70 percent of smokers report they want to quit, and a little more than 42 percent say they've tried to quit during the past year [source: CDC].● In an attempt to quit the tobacco habit as many as one-fifth of smokers have tried e-cigarettes [source: Ross].Before you consider taking up the e-cigarette habit, read on to get the facts [or read entire article |>HERE]:

You'll never worry about misplacing your lighter or your matches if you're smoking an e-cigarette -- there's nothing to light. Instead, e-cigarettes run on a lithium battery; Each also contains a vaporization chamber and a cartridge filled with liquid. Because they don't burn tobacco, there's no smoke, no carbon monoxide and no odor; what you inhale is vapor [source: FDA].● E-cigarettes are smoke-free and tobacco-free, but they're not nicotine-free. The liquid in e-cigarettes is typically a combination of nicotine, flavorings (such as bubble gum or watermelon), propylene glycol (a solvent), and other additives. There are also cartridges available that contain flavored liquid without nicotine, for users who want the sensory experience of smoking a cigarette without the harmful effects.● Cigarette smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, and among those, 69 are known carcinogens [source: American Lung Association]. E-cigarettes, too, come with health and safety concerns. The problem? Liquid nicotine. liquid nicotine can be lethal. It can cause harm when it's inhaled, but it can also be harmful when ingested or absorbed through your skin. Only a small dose is dangerous -- less than one tablespoon of many of the e-liquids on the market is enough to kill an adult, and as little as a teaspoon could kill a child) [source: Richtel]. Certain e-cigarette devices may also release metals during use -- including tin in some cases -- as well as other impurities known to be toxic and/or carcinogenic.● Many regulatory agencies and health experts aren't sure just how safe e-cigarettes actually are. In 2009, for example, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found some cartridges of liquid nicotine contained about 1 percent diethylene glycol (DEG), a toxic chemical ingredient also found in antifreeze [source: FDA]. Also, the amount of nicotine listed on a cartridge label may not match the actual amount in the cartridge.● It's not only smokers who are impacted by the effects of cigarettes; as many as 2.5 million nonsmokers have died from the lethal effects of secondhand smoke between 1964 and 2014 [source: CDC]. Despite the claims they're safer than regular cigarettes, e-cigarettes may not completely solve the problem of secondhand exposure to nicotine.● In the lab, cells exposed to e-cigarette vapor show unhealthy changes similar to cells exposed to tobacco smoke [source: Park et al]. Users who vape nicotine-free e-cigs can't escape the effects, either; they also experience airway resistance and other signs of inflammation as side effects of e-cigarette use.

Smoke- and tobacco-free college campus policies are working

Submitted by sglantz on Sat, 2014-12-20 08:47

Amanda Fallin, Maria Roditis, and I just published "Association of Campus Tobacco Policies With Secondhand Smoke Exposure, Intention to Smoke on Campus, and Attitudes About Outdoor Smoking Restrictions" in American Journal of Public Health.

We surveyed California college students between September 2013 and May 2014 with a range of policies (smoke-free indoors only, designated outdoor smoking areas, smoke-free, and tobacco-free). We found:

Stronger policies were associated with fewer students reporting exposure to secondhand smoke or seeing someone smoke on campus.On tobacco-free college campuses, fewer students smoked and reported intention to smoke on campus.Strong majorities of students supported outdoor smoking restrictions across all policy types.Comprehensive tobacco-free policies are effective in reducing exposure to smoking and intention to smoke on campus.

In short, smoke and tobacco free policies are widely accepted and are working on campus.

03) E-cigarette use can undermine smoke-free and tobacco-free policies causing confusion due to their resemblance to traditional cigarettes and the “smoky look” of vapors being emitted.

04) High nicotine concentrations in e-cigarette fluid can be acutely toxic if spilled on the skin or accidently ingested.2-3

05) There are no current regulations on the manufacture and sale of e-cigarettes – consumers don’t know what they are breathing in or exhaling into the air for others to breathe.

If you are interested in creating a new tobacco-free policy, or making changes to your existing policy, to specifically address the use of e-cigarettes, please contact ASHLine. We are available to assist in this process. And if you or your staff are interested in scheduling a training on e-cigarettes and assisting e-cigarette users with the quit process, please call the ASHLine Community Development Team at 1-800-556-6222 x290 or e-mail us at refer@ashline.org

Right now, the FDA regulates cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco to prevent kids from using them and protect public health. But other products, including e-cigarettes and cigars, are exempt. The FDA must close this gap to stop tobacco companies from targeting our kids with a new generation of unregulated tobacco products.

We need the FDA to protect our kids from ALL tobacco products. You can help by signing our petition to President Obama urging his Administration to issue a final rule to regulate all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and cigars.

Help us send a strong message to President Obama today! Please click |>HERE

"Long-term exposure is recognized as contributing to lung cancer," says Peyton. "And so we would like to minimize contact (to the extent one can) especially to delicate tissues like the lungs."

Conley says the researchers found formaldehyde only when the e-cigarettes were cranked up to their highest voltage levels.

"If you hold the button on an e-cigarette for 100 seconds, you could potentially produce 100 times more formaldehyde than you would ever get from a cigarette," Conley says. "But no human vaper would ever vape at that condition, because within one second their lungs would be incredibly uncomfortable."

That's because the vapor would be so hot. Conley compares it to overcooking a steak.

"I can take a steak and I can cook it on the grill for the next 18 hours, and that steak will be absolutely chock-full of carcinogens," he says. "But the steak will also be charcoal, so no one will eat it."

Peyton acknowledges that he found no formaldehyde when the e-cigarettes were set at low levels. But he says he thinks plenty of people use the high settings.

"As I walk around town and look at people using these electronic cigarette devices it's not difficult to tell what sort of setting they're using," Peyton says.

"You can see how much of the aerosol they're blowing out. It's not small amounts."

"It's pretty clear to me," he says, "that at least some of the users are using the high levels."

findings, saying the measurements were made under unrealistic conditions.

"They clearly did not talk to [people who use e-cigarettes] to understand this," says Gregory Conley of the American Vaping Association. "They think, 'Oh well. If we hit the button for so many seconds and that produces formaldehyde, then we have a new public health crisis to report.' " But that's not the right way to think about it, Conley suggests.

E-cigarettes work by heating a liquid that contains nicotine to create a vapor that users inhale. They're generally considered safer than regular cigarettes, because some research has suggested that the level of most toxicants in the vapor is much lower than the levels in smoke.

Some public health experts think vaping could prevent some people from starting to smoke traditional tobacco cigarettes and help some longtime smokers kick the habit.

But many health experts are also worried that so little is known about e-cigarettes, they may pose unknown risks. So Peyton and his colleagues decided to take a closer look at what's in that vapor.

"We simulated vaping by drawing the vapor — the aerosol — into a syringe, sort of simulating the lungs," Peyton says. That enabled the researchers to conduct a detailed chemical analysis of the vapor. They found something unexpected when the devices were dialed up to their highest settings."To our surprise, we found masked formaldehyde in the liquid droplet particles in the aerosol," Peyton says.

He calls it "masked" formaldehyde because it's in a slightly different form than regular formaldehyde — a form that could increase the likelihood it would get deposited in the lung. And the researchers didn't just find a little of the toxicant.

"We found this form of formaldehyde at significantly higher concentrations than even

California declares electronic cigarettes a health threat

BREAKING NEWS:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California health officials on Wednesday declared electronic cigarettes a health threat that should be strictly regulated like tobacco products, joining other states and health advocates across the U.S. in seeking tighter controls as "vaping" grows in popularity. Please read full story |>HERE

A City Council subcommittee was urged to amend the ordinance that bans smoking tobacco in public places to include e-cigarettes, or "vaporizers," battery-powered devices that release vapor containing nicotine.

Members of the Mesa-based group Arizonans Concerned About Smoking told subcommittee members at a Jan. 28 meeting the ordinance should be amended because little is known about the effects of e-cigarettes.

"Until we know what the science is, it's better to be proactive and preventative. We really don't know what the long-term effects of these are,'' said Philip Carpenter, the group's executive director, after the meeting.

Decades of epidemiological data demonstrate that men have higher overall cancer rates than women. This difference in risk is more than four-fold for some types of cancer, but the reasons for the disparity remain mostly mysterious.

In an investigation of blood samples from more than 1,000 men, scientists at Uppsala University in Sweden and their colleagues found that those with higher rates of chromosome Y loss tended to die younger and were more susceptible to a variety of cancers. Now, some of the same researchers have shown that smoking behavior is strongly linked to the loss of the Y chromosome—a relatively common occurrence. The results, reported today (December 4) in Science, suggest a mechanism for the increased risk of many cancers observed in male smokers compared to female smokers.

This work “provides an interesting hypothesis for a biological mechanism that could contribute to the sex ratio in cancer,” said cancer epidemiologist Ellen Chang of the Stanford School of Medicine who was not involved in the study. “It certainly doesn’t provide a definitive answer,” she added. “It’s more of a hypothesis.”

To explore potential causes for the loss of the Y chromosome, Uppsala’s Jan Dumanski, Lars Forsberg, and their colleagues examined the blood samples and medical records of 6,000 Swedish men from three independent cohorts. They used single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array analysis to quantify the loss of the Y

chromosome (LOY) in blood cells, and then tested for associations between LOY rates and factors such as age, education level, exercise habits, smoking, and cholesterol levels.

“We analyzed many, many different potential confounders, but smoking was sticking out,” said Forsberg. “In all three cohorts, we see an independent effect: that smokers have more loss of Y in their blood compared to nonsmokers.”

blood cells may reflect this process in many cell types, it is also possible that specific cancer-fighting abilities are compromised in immune cells that lack the Y chromosome.

In a small experiment, the researchers sorted blood cells from three 91-year-old cancer-free members of the Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men, which was initiated in 1970. This analysis showed low levels of LOY in CD4+ T cells, which participate in cancer immunosurveillance, but higher LOY rates in other cell types. Forsberg said his team is working to obtain samples from a larger group of men to follow up on this finding.

While the underlying molecular links between smoking, LOY, and cancer remain unclear, this work contributes to “a rising tide of respect for and interest in the Y chromosome and its role in human biology and health and disease,” said David Page, an expert on sex chromosome biology and the director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “The publication of this paper in a high-profile journal is symptomatic of that.” Until recently, Page added, scientists believed the Y chromosome contributed only to sex determination and male fertility, but “it’s now plausible that loss of the Y chromosome could have consequences in every nook and cranny of the body.”

A new study reveals an association between smoking and rates of Y chromosome loss in blood cells, which may explain elevated cancer risk among male smokers.

By Molly Sharlach | December 4, 2014

In two of the groups, the team was able to compare LOY levels in menwho were current smokers to LOY levels in those who had quit. Strikingly, they found that former smokers had LOY rates similar to those of men who had never smoked. Further, data on smoking frequency suggested that occasional smokers experienced less LOY than heavier smokers, added Forsberg.

The researchers hypothesize that the loss of the Y chromosome may give cells a “proliferative advantage” due to the elimination of important regulators—an idea consistent with recent evidence that the Y chromosome contains tumor suppressor genes. While LOY in

Please check out our Facebook pages for a quick look at yesterday's Health Leadership Awards!I will be posting the pics on these pages soon, hopefully today (Sunday).